The Autobiography of Ronald Reagan is a Must read.
Maybe, but it is still one Hell of a good book.
A kid would better spend his afternoon reading through Frank Miller's "The 300" to learn something about bravery, dedication to duty, and speaking truth to power.
I know we’re in the age of relative quality, but what about the complete works of Shakespeare, or Dante, or Homer?
I must have read a different To Kill a Mockingbird.
I love the book because of its wonderful humor and the fascinating depiction of Depression America. I’ve even traveled to Monroeville, AL to visit the sites of the novel. The courthouse still stands with a museum attached and in summer the townspeople perform the play version of the book in the courthouse park.
I you’re going in for this kind of thing, how about The Sound and the Fury?
You won’t read that in the 9th grade - or at least it’s not part of the official curriculum.
Oprah pulls the strings and America responds.
For a real taste of the South of that era:
The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner.....
get ‘em while they’re young said Dewey.
Loved the book as a girl; still one of my favorites. The movie is great, too. Gregory Peck is wonderful; little Scout in her ham costume is precious.
“A Confederacy of Dunces.”
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Bible
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
All Quite on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the D'urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn
List is too full of modern lit - how could a group of BRITISH librarians come up with a list that excluded Shakespeare?
And no, I did not mispell "All QUITE on the Western Front, it was listed that way - good job editors!
It’s a good book, but I could come up with a list of at least a hundred that are better.
I took a lot of lit courses in college, and read a LOT of short stories. It wasn’t until at least an entire year into it that I noticed, “Hey! At least HALF of these short stories are about really, really, really, mean and racist white people, being really mean to poor, yet hard working and EXTREMELY dignified black people way down south.”
This was in the days before I was politically aware, but I still remember how stunned I was when I realized what a HUGE percentage of short story collections have this theme.
I went through junior high and high school during the 70’s, in Staunton, Virginia and in the rural Augusta County. We were never assigned this book or some others that I have read kids were assigned. I read this as an adult after four years in the Navy. I liked it and I think it is well written. However, it seems to be used to say “this is what the entire south was like.” I read Black Boy by Richard Wright and thought that was more indicative of race relations during that time. After reading the review, I am now somewhat envious of Harper Lee. It would be great to write one book, and then retire for the rest of your life.
Some themes are timeless.
Anything but ‘Catcher in the Rye.’ That book is awesome when you are 15 or 16, and utterly unreadable once you cross over into adulthood. Really a remarkably bad book.
Amazingly, I didn’t read it until I was in my 40’s; I couldn’t put it down.
The themes are as true today as they were when it was written. Engaging storyline and terrificly fleshed-out characters.
There’s a reason it’s a classic.